The woman was a Russian, and with Russian good-humour offered a part of her fare, which I had no appetite or inclination to accept.
After some time, I laid the child down to sleep on the bed, and walked out to see ifthe repairs would soon be finished. It was a clear, cold morning, and the sun shone with dazzling brightness on the spangled wood we had just quitted : a few scattered huts at no great distance from the kabac, neither added to the beauty, nor decreased the wildness of the scene.
As I was alone, I could not venture to walk far, nor was the snow beaten enough for walking, and I was compelled to return to the kabac. The lines of our Poet Laureate were forcibly recalled to my recollection, when I remembered that this was indeed the joyous festival of Christmas : I felt the powerful contrast with all the force of the poet, betwixt the " blazing hearth/' and " heaped board/' which I had so often shared in England, and that now before me ; and lonely and uncomfortable feelings heightened the fatigues of the journey. " Hence of the friends I think Who now perchance remember me." It was two hours before we were ready to proceed ; and I felt no wish to repeat my visit to a Russian kabac.
At the station before we reached the latter place, Mr. Y. met the Count Romanzoff, whom he had known intimately at Petersburg!*, and who now met him again with much pleasure, and gave him a particular invitation to stop as he passed his estate at Homil, to see the improvements there, and the manufactures he had established, which Mr. Y. promised to do.
At Moghiloff we stayed but one night, and I saw nothing of the town, except the part through which we drove: it is a district town, and of course a large one. The fine-looking churches and houses, all stuccoed and white, have a veryimposing appearance ; but, like many other beauties decorated with paint, they look best at a distance, and will not bear scrutiny.
The roof of the churches, which are of iron or slate, are painted green, or red, or various other colours :
they also paint the houses in a similar manner, which then look very gay.
Between Moghiloff and Homil are eleven stages ; throughout which nothing particular occurred, except the customary hindrances from want of horses, and the necessity for separating our party.